Carmine Appice’s Power Rock DVD Series: Drum
Wars: The Ultimate Battle: Carmine & Vinny Appice/Fretless Bass with Tony Franklin/Latin Rock For Gringos with Tris Imboden/Rockabilly Rocking Swing with Slim Jim Phantom (MVD Visual)
Picture:
C Sound: C+ Extras: D
Main Programs: B-
With all
the interest in the hit videogame Guitar
Hero, MVD Visual could not have picked a better time to be able to reissue
the Carmine Appice’s Power Rock
special interest musician series that helps you learn how to be a musician in
all kinds of ways. We received four
volumes and were surprised how well they held up for their age and the good
humor they involved.
Self-explanatory
in their titling, Drum Wars: The
Ultimate Battle: Carmine & Vinny Appice, Fretless Bass with Tony Franklin, Latin Rock For Gringos with Tris Imboden and Rockabilly Rocking Swing with Slim Jim Phantom (before The Stray
Cats broke up?) are all over 50 minutes, with Franklin’s running the longest at
73. Guess Bass is hardest to learn and
that may be why those are among the rarest musicians to find.
For
non-musicians, these are curios that can deliver some interesting moments, but
if you like music and want to play, they have a new value in an environment of
sampling, recycling, pop tarts and bad music contests. We do not know if this is the whole series,
but four are better than none and any of them are worth a look.
The 1.33
X 1 image is older from analog NTSC video originally intended for VHS, but with
that in mind, looks better than a VHS or Beta would look and music fans will be
happy with that. The original simple
stereo has been spread out to Dolby Digital 5.1 with mixed results. The combination is archival and there is
still plenty to learn from these programs.
- Nicholas Sheffo
